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GATE 2025 XH2 (English) – Question 45

History of English Literature and Literary Studies · English Literary Traditions across Time: Chaucer to contemporary English literature · 2 marks · Multiple choice

Match the following estimates of Shakespeare with their authors:

EstimateAuthor
a“We must have admitted that Shakespeare possessed the chief if not all the requisites of a poet namely, deep feeling and exquisite sense of beauty, both as exhibited to the eye in combination of form, and to the ear in sweet and appropriate melody.”iJohn Dryden
b“It may seem a paradox, but I cannot help being of opinion that the plays of Shakespeare are less calculated for performance on stage than those of almost any other dramatist whatever.”iiMatthew Arnold
c“He was the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul.”iiiCharles Lamb
d“Others abide our question. Thou art free. / We ask and ask—Thou smilest and art still, / Out-topping knowledge.”ivS. T. Coleridge
  1. a-iv, b-iii, c-i, d-ii
  2. a-i, b-ii, c-iii, d-iv
  3. a-iii, b-iv, c-i, d-ii
  4. a-iv, b-iii, c-ii, d-i

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Show answer and explanation

Correct answer: (A) a-iv, b-iii, c-i, d-ii

Explanation

(a) is Coleridge's assessment of Shakespeare as a poet. (b) is Lamb's argument in “On the Tragedies of Shakespeare”. (c) is Dryden's praise in the Essay of Dramatic Poesy. (d) is from Arnold's sonnet “Shakespeare”.